The end of the traditional mall: what to do now?

Donoreo · 2025-04-02T12:05:12+00:00

Department stores are disappearing from Canada’s retail landscape Shopping centers are evolving to repurpose space and attract new tenants Experts believe this change brings opportunities for innovation and mixed-use developments The Hudson’s Bay Company’s liquidation will impact downtown cores and institutional owners There I a cool photo of a space in an Edmonton mall that shows a department store space having been repurposed in the article. https://retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2025/04/the-end-of-department-stores-whats-next-for-canadian-malls/

Thane_Bitter

urbanriot This last year really has changed the retail landscape, Crappy tire comes to mind but they like to have independent store spaces. I can’t recall if there is one near the PEN centre, if there is it would be illogical for them to move unless their current location is far too small or could be turned into profitable high rise housing. They have somewhat expanded their product lines as Zellers, Sears and others died out but still are short of offering the same number of products. Is there a Giant Tiger? I hate the name but seems like the winners now are ones that sell volume at low costs.

Thane_Bitter

FrathosCAN Captive audience, its either older people that do not drive but walk over, or students which have money but not the sense to be frugal. More development is going in around that area too, at least Proudfoot will connect to Proudfoot. The city has a lot of disconnected same named roads, the plan was they would connect but it’s taken more than have a century.

mrweather

Thane_Bitter Crappy tire comes to mind but they like to have independent store spaces. I can’t recall if there is one near the PEN centre

There is, just down the road from the Pen Centre (other side of the 406).

(I’ve started to become more familiar with St. Catharines since my daughter goes to Brock.)

px_eliezer_

Donoreo There are multiple Youtube channels about people exploring Dead Malls in just their area. One guy in Connecticut within 2 hour drives has dozens.

The Story Of The Trashed Mall From ‘Blues Brothers’

Some intel on the Blues Brothers mall: it was the former Dixie Square Shopping Center in Harvey, IL; a south-suburb of Chicago. It was only open for 13 years before closing in 1979, when the city’s crime rate exploded in the wake of “white flight”. Timing, of course, couldn’t be better for John Landis, and in August he set up shop in the vacant mall and “dressed it up” to appear fully-functional and open.

Of course, that was just Hollywood magic, and once the crew left (the mall in a disastrous state that was never repaired, despite a lawsuit that was ultimately tossed): the mall was briefly used as a school, then left to rot from 1981 onward. From there, it was a heavy crime magnet, with gang activity and vandalism taking over for the first 20 years until photographers began documenting and exploring its bombed-out shell, starting around 2003 or so.

After at least one murder was committed in there, multiple arsons, roof collapses, one botched revitalization project after another, thousands of photographs, and an “accidental” demolition of one of the anchor stores that was to be purchased and used as a warehouse: it was finally demolished late last year (—2012—), only-possible through the use of Hurricane Ike disaster relief funding… business as usual in Illinois.

https://www.jalopnik.com/the-story-of-the-trashed-mall-from-blues-brothers-483083293/

Delonar

Online such as Amazon is killing what’s left of malls.

urbanriot

mrweather

Good point. The redeveloped part of Erin Mills Town Centre after the Sears closed down includes a Cineplex Junxion and a Marshalls.

Yea, another way to look at this topic is “The end of the department store” which is having an impact on malls. Some good options for less department-y stores would be a movie theatre as you mentioned, Marshalls / Winners, Staples, Canadian Tire, Simons, H&M, decent restaurants, etc.. Stick a Cheesecake Factory at the end of a mall and you’ll keep a mall alive (I only say that because the Walden Galleria location is absolutely jammed on the weekends).

mozerd

Donoreo
Necessity is the mother of invention <> as that saying goes … lots of innovation will take place that will fill a need … a tremendous opportunity for those have the entrepreneurial spirit and understand the way human nature works … in the retail space small is in big is out … specializtion is in because it caters to the need … the race to the bottom guarrantees your doom …

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